This disclosure relates generally to universal resource locator rewriting in a data processing system and more specifically to identifying universal resource locator rewriting rules. Universal resource locator (URL) rewriting may be a web server technology used as a search engine optimization method. The technology may have evolved to a wide range of implementations. Universal resource locator rewriting may create shorter and more relevant looking aliases to replace real web application links. The component responsible for link transformation may be called a rewrite engine.